I do feel for those old clubs who are now a mere shadow of the ones they were in their pomp. Clubs like Oldham, Rochdale, Workington and Salford.

However, I cannot understand the desire to cut off your noses to spite your collective face. Anyone who thinks that Oldham, standing alone, will ever regain their former glory is deluding himself. And the same applies to all the other clubs I mentioned. And I do include Salford in that list! Alone, we are never going to make it big. Together, we might just have a chance.

I have said before that all the 'Manchester' clubs should be playing in the Championship and some sort of joint venture club should be playing in SL. That is, I know, just a fantasy. It won't work. The joint club would still be playing before 5 or 6 thousand people. Until it started winning regularly, that is.

It is a shame that Oldham are in the straits they are. It is a shame that Rochdale are, that Workington are, that Swinton are, that Salford are. But it is 2012, not 1952. None of these once-proud clubs have really moved with the times and that is the real problem. Sticking your heads in the sand won't solve that.

I do feel for those old clubs who are now a mere shadow of the ones they were in their pomp. Clubs like Oldham, Rochdale, Workington and Salford.

However, I cannot understand the desire to cut off your noses to spite your collective face. Anyone who thinks that Oldham, standing alone, will ever regain their former glory is deluding himself. And the same applies to all the other clubs I mentioned. And I do include Salford in that list! Alone, we are never going to make it big. Together, we might just have a chance.

I have said before that all the 'Manchester' clubs should be playing in the Championship and some sort of joint venture club should be playing in SL. That is, I know, just a fantasy. It won't work. The joint club would still be playing before 5 or 6 thousand people. Until it started winning regularly, that is.

It is a shame that Oldham are in the straits they are. It is a shame that Rochdale are, that Workington are, that Swinton are, that Salford are. But it is 2012, not 1952. None of these once-proud clubs have really moved with the times and that is the real problem. Sticking your heads in the sand won't solve that.

Another Championship club gets stuffed up with this ridiculous arrangement. I can see a few clubs disappearing as many fans dont want these links and for them its the end of their club as they see it. People like Gav can live in a dream world and pretend everything is rosy and that the Championship sides will prosper under such things. The reality is many clubs independence has gone. Fans are angry and fed up with many ready to walk away from the game forever. This may benefit SL clubs in saving money but these arrangements could be the death of some clubs, if potentially hundreds of fans walk away from the championship and stop putting their money to clubs. Fans for many years feel their club has been taken over and its now just a feeder club in all but name. The BS presented by the Clubs and RFL saying its not feeder clubs can be seen through by many fans. Its started off as DR and then each season it changed to now this. Another 5-10 years the Championship will be a Feeder Club League. I dont see what Oldham stand to gain really as Salford are in a mess themselves and likely will be for the next few years. Salford dont have money or even a great academy or fringe players. Featherstone have a much better academy and the likes of Halifax, Featherstone and Sheffield are better run.

This is my issue mate. There can never be an inbetween with Rugby League fans can there? It has to either revolutionise the game or kill it completely.

I'm not in a dream world. Everything certainly isn't rosy, there is plenty that can be improved. Will the Championship prosper under these partnerships? Maybe, maybe not...

I'm sorry for not sounding the death knell at this news, but all I'm doing is trying to keep a sense of perspective here. Someone has to!

Precisely. There's never any balance it's one extreme or the other. I can easily understand Oldham fans being cautious or objecting to the idea but nothing has happened yet and we simply don't know how these arrangements will pan out.

First of all, I think all Oldham supporters should breathe a huge sigh of relief that it isn't Saints who they are partnered with. At least you got to choose your own coach and didn't have The Cronies taking over your club.

Secondly, Salford is only a screw up because it must have the worst group of managers in place in the whole of any league in the sport. They really are the worst. Hopefully once the deal with Peel/Salford Council is finalised, the new owners will bin the lot of them and put proper managers in place who actually know what they are doing. Should that happen then there is no reason why Salford couldn't become much more competitive and be as good a club as any to link up with.

I was hoping that Oldham would be partnered with a Superleague team as they are one of the Championship 1 clubs who need support, just as Rochdale does (it didn't need a takeover mind). I will be interested to see whether that partnership does bring the advantages to Oldham that I hope it will.

I just hope that this partnership business doesn't create a two tier Championship 1. I think Gateshead Thunder and North Wales Crusaders are without partners and that's a shame. Gateshead in particular could have really benefited from some young Superleague players and they have a superb community club going up there.